Unbound Spirits

Chapter 2-2

“It is a place I own. You don’t need to know anything more than that.”

“But — ”

Abruptly, the smile disappeared. Whitcomb’s black eyes glittered, and he said, “Enough. I don’t need your chatter distracting me.”

Before she could move, try to pull away, he’d reached out and touched a finger to her temple. A bolt of searing pain went through her body, and she cried out. Immediately after the pain came darkness, and the world — and the thing living in Jeffrey Whitcomb’s body — was gone.

Thank God Colin was nowhere in evidence when Michael climbed out of Susan’s car. The last thing he felt like doing was trying to explain to the producer why their co-host was a no-show, especially since there was no real evidence to explain what had happened to her.

Something bad, though. Something wrong.

Michael murmured a thank-you to Susan for driving him to the airport and back, then slipped into his room. No need to press his luck by wandering around the grounds, even if they were quite beautiful, and might have offered him a quiet place to sit and try to figure out what in the world he was supposed to do now. However, avoiding Colin took precedence over any solace the fountain in the courtyard might have provided. While his producer would discover Audrey’s absence sooner or later, Michael thought he might as well maximize his private time now while he had the chance.

His room at the B&B where they were filming the current episode of the show was actually a suite with a sitting area separate from the bedroom. He sat down on the couch, closed his eyes, and did his best to recall what he’d experienced in the parking lot at the airport. Cold, but localized, as if it had been connected to a car that had occupied the space where he stood. Had someone dragged Audrey into a car and then sped off with her? He supposed something like that could have happened, but he couldn’t figure out why she would be in the parking lot in the first place. Even if she’d taken it into her head to rent a car rather than wait for Susan to show up, the car rental kiosks and parking lots were located in an entirely different part of the airport complex. It didn’t make sense.

Michael would never have described himself as a true clairvoyant; he got impressions from places and people, but he didn’t experience visions, didn’t have the ability to conjure clear images of events that happened in separate places and times. Still, he strained for that kind of sight now, hoping against hope that the inner eye in his mind would suddenly open and grant him the information he so desperately needed.

Nothing, of course. He could still feel the cold of that one particular spot, the sense of evil that had pervaded it, but he couldn’t pick up anything more than that. And the thing was, he had a hard time imagining Audrey being forced into a car against her will. She would have put up a fight, and there were enough people coming and going in the parking lot that surely someone would have noticed something, would have called security even if they didn’t want to get involved themselves.

Which meant…what? That she’d known the person in the car?

That didn’t make any sense.

Reluctantly, Michael opened his eyes, then got up from the couch and retrieved his laptop from where it rested in its case in the closet. He had basically nothing to go on, but he thought he might as well check to see if there had been any reports of human traffickers working in the parking lots at the airport. Again, though, if Audrey had been the target of someone like that, she would have fought back.

Unless she was drugged somehow….

He fought to clear that image from his head. The situation made him fear the worst, but he needed to stay sharp, to keep his wits about him as best he could. That was the only way he’d be able to figure out what had happened to her.

There was a small bistro set in one corner of the sitting area. Michael opened up his laptop and set it on the table, then sat down. Almost as soon as he logged in, he saw that he had more than a hundred unread emails in his inbox.

His first instinct was to ignore them and go on with the business at hand, but something stopped him, made him click on the icon for his mail program. Mostly junk, as he’d feared, but his gaze landed on an automated message from the contact form on his website. In general, he wouldn’t have placed much importance on getting such a message, since he routinely received around a dozen every day, and yet this one seemed to jump out at him from among all the other unread emails.

He clicked on it, saw that the return address was rmcguire626@g*******m. At first it didn’t quite connect, but as soon as he began reading the message, he realized who the email was from.

I had to use your contact form because I don’t have your phone number or email. Audrey said she would call when she got to Tucson, but it’s after four now and I haven’t heard anything. Her phone keeps going to voicemail. Please call and let me know if she’s okay…626-555-2289.—Rosemary McGuire

At any other time, Michael might have been annoyed by what he viewed as interference from someone who really didn’t know what they were dealing with. Now, however, he realized he probably could use Rosemary’s help. They might have had their differences of opinion in the past, but she was a strong psychic, might be able to see where Audrey had been taken.

If she’d been taken at all. She still could have simply gone off on her own. As for not answering her phone, well, if she was still angry enough with him, she might have put her phone in “do not disturb” mode in order to avoid any intrusive calls.

But that didn’t sound like Audrey. She was too responsible to indulge herself with those sorts of petty games, no matter what her personal feelings toward him might be.

He got his phone out of his pocket, called the number Rosemary had given him. It rang three times, and he worried it might go to voicemail. But then he heard her voice, and music in the background, quickly muted.

“Rosemary here.”

“Rosemary, it’s Michael Covenant.”

A pause. Then she said, “Is Audrey with you?”

“No. We know she got off the plane, but she disappeared after that.”

“Shit.”

Exactly, he thought, but he only said, “We can’t seem to find any trace of her. She left the terminal and just…vanished.”

“Have you called the police?”

A logical question, but he had a feeling this was something the police wouldn’t be able to help them with. And besides…. “Not yet. They’re not going to want to talk to me until Audrey’s been missing for longer than a couple of hours.”

“Oh. I hadn’t thought of that.” She seemed to hesitate, then said, “Do you need me to help?”

Trying to keep some of the relief out of his voice, he replied, “I was hoping you could.”

“Of course. I’m on the road right now — I had a retreat in Idyllwild this weekend — but I’ll do what I can when I get home.”

“That would be a big help. I tried, but I couldn’t see anything.”

“The great Michael Covenant admitting failure?”

Obviously, she’d asked the question to get a rise out of him, but he was worried enough right now that he didn’t want to waste energy by taking the bait. “Clairvoyance isn’t my particular strength. I just figured I might as well make the attempt and see what happened.”

“Got it. I should be home in another half hour or so. I can reach you at this number?”

“Yes, I’ll be here.”

“Okay. I’ll call you then.”

She ended the call, and Michael set his phone down on the table next to his laptop. It was a little disappointing that he would still have to wait a bit until Rosemary got home, but he supposed it could have been worse — she could have still been up in Idyllwild rather than halfway back to Glendora.

In the meantime…well, in the meantime, he might as well go over his notes on the bed-and-breakfast, get himself prepared for the upcoming shoot. He’d walked the grounds soon after he got here and hadn’t seen or felt anything particularly out of the ordinary, but both ghosts and demons could be slippery prey, appearing at their own whim and no one else’s.

As he pulled up the file on his laptop, he hoped that Susan had also been able to slip quietly into her room without encountering Colin…or Daniela, who was certainly friendly enough but who also had a tendency to gossip. There was also the added complication of her newfound relationship with Colin. Of course, Michael would never ask either of them outright, but he got the distinct impression that Colin and Daniela had also hooked up the night of the celebratory wrap party at The Bahooka.

Hooked up. Such a trite phrase to describe what he’d shared with Audrey that night. He’d been with enough women to know that what the two of them had experienced had been extraordinary, a connection he’d never felt with anyone else before. To have that promise before him, and then to have it snatched away so suddenly the next day….

He shook his head. Right now, the problem at hand was to locate Audrey and hope she was still well and whole. They could hash out their differences then…if she’d even allow him to. Hers had been a hard, bright, icy anger, difficult to work his way around. But he’d have to try. He knew it was impossible that they would simply work together on the show, then go their separate ways once shooting was done. If nothing else, their destruction of the circles in the basement of the Whitcomb mansion proved how well they worked together. He wanted to keep on working with her, wanted to be part of her life, and for her to be part of his.

Of course, they had to find her first.

Frowning, he looked down at his notes on the bed-and-breakfast. The main part of the house had been built in the 1870s, then added on to here and there as its various owners saw fit. Now it had five guest rooms in addition to the wing where its current owners lived, plus a common living room and dining area.

Supernatural phenomena had been detected in all the rooms in the place, although the activity had been most intense here in the room he’d taken for himself. He’d asked to stay here, wanting to see everything first hand if possible. When he’d walked in the room initially, he’d expected to get that strange thrill he usually experienced whenever he entered a space that had been touched by ghosts or demons. Here, though, he hadn’t felt a damn thing.

While the lack of any strange vibrations had meant he probably would get a decent night’s sleep, it didn’t bode well for the upcoming shoot.

Colin had said it was no problem, that he could always find a way to “spice things up” if necessary, but Michael had no desire to go that route. Their first location had been a roaring success, and he wanted to keep that momentum going, not squander it on fake jump scares and breathy, over-sensationalized narration.

Although at the moment, he’d gladly shoot the fakest paranormal investigation to ever hit cable TV if it meant getting Audrey back safe and sound.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw it.